Communication and cooperation in living beings and artificial agents

Abstract

This chapter compares the communicative and cooperative behaviours of living and artificial beings. Highlighting similarities and differences between these behaviours provides better understanding of the phenomenon of communication and embodiment in communication in general. Living beings with their huge variety of communication behaviours take the lead to draw the most salient distinctions in both communicative and cooperative behaviours. These distinctions are applied to a variety of behaviours instantiated by artificial agents. A huge amount of cooperation, as it turns out, is possible without direct communication, which can be seen in simpler animals as well as in robots. © Oxford University Press, 2008. All rights reserved.